AI Interdisciplinarity as Critical Technical Practicewriting

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  • Title: AI Interdisciplinarity as Critical Technical Practice
  • Author: Lucy Suchman (Lancaster University)
  • ORCID: 0000-0001-9752-4684
  • Contact: l.suchman@lancaster.ac.uk
  • Journal: Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society
  • Publisher: Cambridge University Press
  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/cfc.2025.10004
  • Published: October 22, 2025
  • License: Creative Commons BY 4.0
  • PDF: https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8465ABCE2EC83AC02511C05652206E49/S3033372525100040a.pdf/ai-interdisciplinarity-as-critical-technical-practice.pdf
  • Content

    Structure (8 pages)

    1. Section 1: "The project that brought us together" 2. Section 2: "Agonistic engagements" 3. Section 3: "Critical technical practice" 4. Section 4: "Auspicious interdisciplinarity"

    Summary

    The article discusses interdisciplinary approaches to artificial intelligence, emphasizing how diverse perspectives strengthen technical work. Suchman draws on Philip Agre's call for a "critical technical practice" to explore how researchers aim to weave together biographical trajectories, disciplinary affiliations, political commitments, trainings, and subjectivities into a more "auspicious interdisciplinarity."

    A central concern is addressing problematic approaches to interdisciplinarity in AI. Suchman describes how initiatives that question the fundamental premises or goals of AI projects are systematically sidelined when interdisciplinarity is viewed instrumentally in service of the AI project. She argues instead that interdisciplinarity functions as a pathway to questioning the frame that has been handed to us in order to reformulate the problem.

    Referenced Organizations and Initiatives

  • Tech Workers Coalition
  • No Tech for Apartheid
  • Athena For All
  • AI Now Institute
  • DAIR Institute
  • Notes

  • The article was published in the Cambridge Forum on AI: Culture and Society (not Episteme as initially suggested in the URL).
  • Full text is open access under CC BY 4.0 license.
  • The article includes 7 footnotes connecting to broader scholarly conversations about technology, ethics, and disciplinary collaboration.